At our most recent board meeting I was listening to both Lil and Peter talk about what they do at Chester County Prison every day-the people they talk with about significant issues of life. I heard them use a phrase which caught my attention. They talked about “finding favor.”

“Finding favor” is a Biblical phrase. If you and I were sitting over a cup of coffee and I asked if you could tell me about someone in the Bible who “found favor,” who would you choose? One such person would be a young woman who “found favor” with God. You could tell me the story about young Mary when the Angel of the Lord announced she would be the mother of the Messiah in Luke 1. You might come up with several others-God looked with ”favor” on Abel’s offering in Genesis 3. Noah “found favor” in the eyes of the Lord in Genesis 6.

But what does this have to do with Peter and Lil at Chester County Prison?

As I listened to them talk, I reviewed in my mind the 34 years Onesimus has been faithfully’ “offering the life-changing good news of Christ” to those we serve. It seems as though Onesimus has “found favor” with the administrative staff who have invited us to come to CCP. I thank God for the privilege of serving the Lord in this manner. Doug Burnette had the vision in 1978 when he asked if he could “go back to prison” – to the same place where he came to know the Lord twelve years before as the result of a crisis which profoundly changed his life.

As I listened to Peter and Lil talk about men and women who want the life change for themselves, I thought about another image from the Bible­ – leavening. You ask what is “leavening?” Leaven is the King James Version’s word for yeast. The Bible uses “leaven” both in a positive/good way as well as in a negative/bad way.

Jesus said in Luke 12: 1: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” This is an image of yeast in the negative sense, suggesting our sin and rebellion will bring more sin and rebellion in ourselves and others. We know the negative use of this image in the saying “One bad apple spoils the bunch. ”

But yeast is also used in the good sense. Galatians 5:9 says: ”A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” Or in Matthew 13:33 where Jesus told another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. ”

Yeast works its way through the whole batch of dough. What a wonderful picture of what Peter and Lit and others are doing among the folks they serve at CCP. Their friendship, teaching, prayers, and ministry are producing a positive impact on others around them, as they learn more about the forgiving grace of God. Somehow, “like yeast spreading through dough,” the Holy Spirit changes them, bit by bit, line upon line, precept upon precept.

My prayer for Peter, Lil, and those they serve is from Ephesians 3: 16-21: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Amen

We thank God for the privilege of being involved in ministry to the folks who are at Chester County Prison. It was in 1978 when Doug Burnette, a parishioner of mine, asked me if it would be possible for him to “go back to prison.”

Doug says there was a time in his life when he needed to be in prison. He says when he was a younger man with his explosive anger problem he needed to be in prison because he was “out of control.” But Doug’s life took a change for the better-much better. In 1966 as an inmate at CCP he would listen to what one pastor would say on Tuesday and compare it with what another pastor would say on Saturday. He said, “Thank God they agreed.”

As Doug heard the good news of Jesus’ ability to change a life, the pastor said, ”You don’t have to live the way you are. God can change your life.” Doug thought to himself, “If it is true as the pastor says I can have a new life and ‘it works’ then I am so much better. If it ‘doesn’t work’ then no one needs to know I tried It and it didn’t work.” Doug accepted God’s forgiving grace and thus began a real life change-yes, with its ups and downs, successes and failures, but one nevertheless committed to the saving grace of a loving Lord.

After Doug had been out of prison for eight years, he wanted to “go back to prison” to help other believers in Christ to experience the same life change he had. Thus, Onesimus Prison Ministries had its beginning with Doug serving as the chaplain at Chester County Prison. Thirty four years later we are so grateful for the continuing ministry of Peter Roomet and Lil Anthony who carry on the “ministry of presence” at CCP.

But most of the people in prison will “serve their time” and will return to our communities-some will “make a life change” and return with a desire to do well. Far too many will continue the same destructive life patterns only to “return once again to prison.” One of the questions with which those involved in prison ministry wrestle is, what happens when someone is released from prison? Keith Brooks, who serves on the Onesimus Ministries Board, is the one in whom the “passion for aftercare” has burned the hottest. He worked hard to match up a person being released with a pastor of a church who would welcome him to the loving support of a Christian community. Keith laments there are relatively few churches in Chester County who are willing to be such “welcoming communities.”

Those involved in the ministry of welcoming into our church families men and women who are coming out of prison know the challenge of helping persons develop new friendships, new habits, new hopes, accepting new responsibilities to continue the walk of discipleship with Christ. It has been so rewarding to see men and women who come to know the life changing grace of God to be welcomed and absorbed into the fellowship of God’s people and do well. It is disappointing when men and women chose not to walk in faithful discipleship.

We would welcome other faith communities to be part of the network of supporting churches -prayer support- ­absolutely, financial support-so essential, but more than that-being a community of faith who will “open the circle” to welcome new believers who are wanting to walk in the fellowship of the good news of God’s redeeming grace. We describe this ministry as “aftercare.” We know the spiritual support and fellowship so essential while in prison is equally important when a person is released back to our community. We ask for your prayers for the critical ministry of “aftercare.”

You are invited …………. to attend our spring banquet at Mt. Vernon Mennonite Church on April 13. Come enjoy the fellowship at 6:00 so we can begin dinner promptly at 6:30. To reserve a seat please call Jim and Rozie Kreider at 717-529-6487, or Vernon Myers at 610-932-4429. Reservations need to be in by April 7. Our evening together is always an inspiration and joy in the grace of God.

The speaker for the evening is Richard Murray. Richard is an ex­inmate who, like Doug Burnette and Peter Roomet, benefited from the spiritual ministry offered while in prison, and is now “involved” helping others with the same grace Jesus offered them …………….. .

“Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Richard Murray and I am thankful for the grace of God I was rescued from a heroin addition in October of 2000 while sitting in a prison cell in Hagerstown, Md. That day I just lay on my face and asked God, if he was real to please save me and deliver me from what I had become. By April of 2001, Jesus called me into ministry and began a prison ministry behind those prison walls. In those years I watched God move mightily in the lives of others and mine, with the eventual early release of my 10 year sentence. Since august of 2003 I have seen God open doors for me from pastoring churches to being a part of prison fellowship. Today I am fueled with the passion and belief that all mankind deserves a second chance, especially those who seemed to be locked away and forgotten. As I always tell people I was never arrested, I was rescued from myself. … ”